When Alice woke up the next day, it was to the sound of someone hammering on her door. Annoyed, she opened her eyes. She had told Pete exactly once that he was allowed to wake her up under any means necessary. Ever since then, he seemed to have made it his job to make every morning worse than the previous one. One of these days, it would be her who wakes up first, and then she would get her sweet revenge.

The fog in her mind began to clear when Ava started to stir. Like a punch in the guts, the occurrences from the previous day returned to her consciousness and forced onto her a sudden realization. Considering the circumstances, either the person waking them up was an inconsiderate asshole, or there was an emergency.

Alice was reasonably sure that this was the latter.

She immediately let go of Ava and stood up. The room was completely dark since the window was blocked with a thick layer of magical stone, making it also impossible to tell how late it was.

She quickly looked at her status.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Name: Alice Liddell

Level: 2

Class-primary: Necromancer 71,4%%

Class-secondary: Warrior 78,2%

Resources:

Stamina: 15/15

Mana: 13/15

Soul energy: 1/10

Primary Stats:

Muscle-density: 15

Stamina: 15

Mana: 15

Magic power: 15

Secondary Stats:

Soul energy: 10

Skills:

Soul collection Lv 1

Soul sense Lv 1

Undead constitution Lv 1

Flesh grafting Lv 1

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

She had regained roughly twelve Mana, which meant she had gotten roughly the same number of hours of sleep. More than enough.

By now, Ava was also sitting up sleepily, mumbling something unintelligible.

"What's going on?" Alice asked the person on the other side of the door, signaling them that they were awake.

"Monsters. According to the boy, they come in ten to thirty minutes. The captain told me to get you. He is waiting for you out front."

"Thanks for telling us," Alice thanked the messenger, prompting him to leave. She frantically searched for the light switch, so they could get ready, only realizing after she found it that it didn't work anymore. Apparently, a home for the elderly had no need for a backup generator. Or they had turned it off intentionally to preserve fuel for winter.

Five minutes of chaotically stumbling through the darkness later, the two girls finally got clothed enough that they could open the door and use the little light that came in through the corridor. It then took them another five minutes to put on all of the gear they had collected the day before, followed by a sprint down the hallway to get to the front door as quickly as possible. The monsters could be coming at any moment after all.

It felt a little grating when Alice finally came out the front door, and every single person gathered behind the wall seemed to be completely relaxed and joking around. Sure, most of them were Vietnam veterans, but it still made her feel stupid for panicking even slightly.

"Relax," a man turned to her, "the Raptors won't be here for another five minutes. We have eyes on them. You are Ava and Alice, right?"

"Yes," Alice answered.

"I'm Michael Rogers, though since my Gran dumped the job on me, people call me captain. Please don't do that," the man said, his voice showing that he had already resigned to his new name.

"Roger!" Ava immediately mock-saluted the man.

"God, no! Just... don't...", the captain complained. At the same time, a mad cackle came from one particularly old lady holding a spear in one hand, and a gun in the other.

Alice could only guess that that was the previously mentioned grandmother.

"Just ignore her. Ava can be a bit of a dick sometimes."

Ava looked at her friend, a scandalized expression on her face.

"Don't worry," Alice assured her while petting the smaller girl's head, "You might be a dick, but you are my dick."

Ava immediately doubled over laughing, confusing Alice.

It took her the better of two seconds to realize what she had just said.

"Oh, for fucks sake. Scratch that. Also, if you start making dick jokes for the rest of the day, this friendship is officially over."

"Not even a short one? It would be over quickly," was all the redhead got out between gasps of air.

Alice pointedly ignored her soon-not-to-be-friend and instead turned back to the man, "I was told that you wanted something from us, Michael?"

"Hmm... It's less that I want something from you than that I want to give you an opportunity. Al talked about how you would leave sooner or later, and I'm just going to assume that you also plan on coming back here?"

It was formulated like a statement but asked like a question. A question with a clear answer. Her mother would still be here, at least she assumed that, and overall, Golden Glades simply was the place with the highest potential to become a permanently safe haven. And most importantly, considering what kind of people the founder group is, there was no reason to fear that this place would turn into some kind of exploitative slave camp.

"Yeah, we will come back here after we find my brother in New York."

"Perfect. Since that is the case, I was planning on giving you a chance for some easy levels. You see that old guy sitting behind the counter? The one with the cap?"

Alice nodded. It was hard not to notice the garish "My little Pony" cap. Alice wouldn't be surprised if it was a present from his four-year-old niece, which might also be the only reason he was wearing it.

"That's Grandpa Fred. He is in charge of the armory. He can give you guns that suit you."

"I've been meaning to ask, but where did you get all these guns in the first place?" Alice highly doubted that the home for the elderly had a secret weapon stash, even if it was specialized in taking care of war veterans.

"There live more than enough people in the area that have enough money and space to build a shooting range in their backyard. What do you think?"

"But isn't it a waste of ammunition?" Ava interceeded.

"Why would you think that?"

"It just seems like a waste to use what limited ammunition you probably have on what seems pretty much like small fry. Sure, I wouldn't want to melee a pack of Raptors on my own, at least if we are talking about the same thing. But wouldn't some improvised spear suffice as long as we have the wall?"

"I see the point you are trying to make. You probably meant that we should save the ammunition for when we have to deal with something stronger, right? But, we made a rough estimate. We think that past level twenty, guns won't be effective anymore, depending on the monster's skill set. And past level fifty, smaller calibers won't do anything anymore. Thanks to Albert, we already know that, in about a month, we will have a run-in with something even the rocket launcher won't work on anymore. So we decided to level our people as safely as possible until that day."

"But..." before Ava could continue, Alice interrupted her.

"Ava, this isn't a game where we can afford to hoard all the best consumables until we beat the final boss. We have exactly one try, and if we fail, it's game over forever."

"I know that!" Ava said, offended.

And rightly so, Alice thought. This time, she had been a bit of a dick. However, she continued, making the point she originally wanted to make, "Think about it. I'm just level two and can already turn undead temporarily. Sure, I would die as soon as the Skill runs out, but at least for a short time, I could already become invulnerable towards most weapons."

"Yeah yeah, I get it already."

"One minute till they get here!" an old female voice shouted down from the roof at that moment.

"Now go and get yourself weapons."

“One last thing. Did you have any cases where someone got a Skill specifically for guns after using them too much?”

“I… don’t think so?” Michael didn’t sound quite sure himself.

"Let’s go," Alice dragged Ava with her into the building and in front of the old man with the garish, pink, and baby blue baseball cap.

"Michael told us you could give us guns?" Alice went right to the point since they were a little pressed on time.

"Hrmm," the man made a sound that made Alice unsure whether he was grumpy or coughing. "What have ya learned to shoot before?"

"Nothing bigger than a handgun. Both of us."

"Giving guns to total newbies," he shook his head in exasperation. Alice was now pretty sure he was the kind of person whose grumpiness was directly related to their age. And him living in a home for the elderly said a lot about that.

In the end, he still went into a small backroom, bringing back two AK-47's. One had a strange, green, and blue camo pattern, while the other was plated in gold, with an expensive-looking red wood used for the grip and stock.

He put the golden one in front of Alice, putting the other to his shoulder as he started explaining the weapon, "You aim like this, and only ever at the enemy. When you turn in any other direction, point it at the ground. Here is the safety," he pointed at the small lever, "Engage it whenever you don't see any enemies. Don't want you shooting someone by accident."

Then, he pointed at yet another lever, continuing with his lecture, "With this, you can switch between single-shot and full-auto mode. Don't touch it. Without any training, you won't be able to handle the recoil properly."

Alice made extra sure to remember which lever did what. She could still remember that one story where a shooting teacher gave an Uzi to a child. What the old man just described was exactly what ended up happening. The child couldn't control the recoil from the automatic fire and ended up shooting the teacher to death. It would have been funny, in a very morbid way, if the child didn't get out of it with massive trauma.

"Change the magazine like this," he quickly demonstrated how to do it, "And you load it with this thing here," he pulled the slide back, producing that all too familiar mechanical sound of a bullet loading into the chamber.

"And when you shoot, always make sure your muzzle is outside the wall on the other side. You don't want to get killed by your own ricochet because your bullet hit the inside of the wall. Now get out there!" The old man finished their crash-course by giving each girl three entire magazines worth of bullets.

Without wasting any more time, Alice and Ava went back outside, where Michael directly addressed them, "Take the two spots directly in the middle of the wall," before shouting louder, "Meg, Jerry, give these two your spots and keep an eye on them!"

"Understood!" "Sure." Two elderly answered, stepping back as soon as Alice and Ava reached their spots. What their replies lacked in the vigor and discipline one would expect from a soldier was more than made up by their calm and surety of someone who had total confidence that they could do whatever was asked of them. Alice doubted that any of the two ever had to stand by and train another soldier in the middle of real combat, but neither of the old people looked like they were even remotely out of their depth.

Alice stepped up to the hole in the wall, one just big enough that she could comfortably aim through it. What she saw through the hole was about twenty to thirty meters of empty space. The parking lot had been freed of any vehicles, followed by a small strip of grass. She couldn't see any further as a line of trees provided cover.

It was at that time that the sky started to light up in purple and red hues. The sun was rising, and with it came the first Raptors that put their heads out from between the trees.

She immediately put her gun through the hole and disengaged the safety, correcting her stance as her impromptu coach listed off a seemingly endless number of mistakes she was making until he was more or less satisfied.

Alice had a realization. She didn't know if it had any kind of meaning. Maybe it had in a symbolic sense. Maybe it was a sign, a small glimpse at the future in front of her.

It was the first morning of the apocalypse and the first sunrise she got to see in a long time. But she had no time to watch the sky changing colors. No, instead, she was focusing on a horde of monsters that was about to try and kill every single one of them.

She was nervous. Even more nervous than when she had been on a strict deadline with only a small chance of getting a Skill that might save her life.

At that time, somewhere deep inside, she had felt important. Like she was the protagonist. In the last moment, the strange system had given her a Skill that allowed her to surpass death, albeit temporarily. It somehow gave her unreasonable confidence that she would somehow survive. And maybe, that confidence had only grown and put its roots deeper into her mind when her mother told her about a prophet who wanted to talk to her, despite never having met her before.

But now, she realized, she was just a single soldier. Just another person with a gun hiding behind a wall squeezed in between people who had decades more experience than her. It ripped out that poisonous weed that had been growing in the back of her mind. It taught her the very same lesson she had given Ava just minutes prior. There was magic, yes. But they didn't live in a game or story. There were no protagonists who had the absolute protection of plot armor. She had simply gotten extremely lucky. She had made a mistake when choosing her Class, which in turn resulted in her getting Skills that allowed her to survive.

Alice glanced to her right where Ava was standing, a concentrated look on her face as she was aiming down one magical dinosaur or another. Immediately, her nerves calmed down. She didn't have to go through this alone. She had the most reliable companion she could imagine right next to her, and they were going to get through this together.

They would raise their levels to get stronger, then they would kill those Trolls. Maybe they would realize that Ava’s brother was still fine, and they simply missed one another. And then… she didn't know what they would do exactly. It was still the end of July, and she was supposed to meet her brother only in Fall. Maybe they could continue training and help to deal with that monster that was supposed to appear in about a month. The one guns wouldn't work on anymore. They also had to find that mystery duo.

And then, there was also still non-magical standard survival fare. Searching out groups of survivors and relocating them into one central location. Looting the shopping center for whatever food they could find. Finding and procuring new and better equipment.

Alice was ripped out of her musings when the first shots fell. For a moment, the sudden noise surprised and confused her. Then she noticed the Raptors coming out from their cover and storming at their secured position. She had no idea what they were trying to achieve. Maybe they had magic or Skills of their own. Maybe they could climb or jump over the wall.

But Alice had no plans to find that out today. She trained her rifle at an enemy and squeezed the trigger. Before she could get the shot, the monster collapsed in a spray of blood.

She changed her aim and shot. Her bullet missed. She pulled the trigger a second time and a third when she missed again. Every pull of the trigger felt like someone was punching her where the gun's stock was sitting securely between her collarbone and shoulder.

"Calm down. There is no reason to waste your bullets. Take your time to aim carefully and make your shots count. It's more effective that way," Jerry commented.

Alice took a deep breath and calmed her racing heart, thanks to the calm voice that seemed to be completely unbothered by the continuous sound of explosions as bullets went off all around them. Despite her helmet muffling the sound, Alice's ears were ringing.

Right. Not a game. There is neither reason nor need to aim for the head. A single shot center mass should take them down. And if not, a second one will finish the job.

She took aim again, this time at a Raptor that was coming directly at her, providing her with a, in relation to her, almost static target. The loud noise hurt in her ears, but the monster stumbled and fell. A clean hit.

Again, Alice looked around, searching for a similar target. She pulled the trigger again, and this time, she hit it directly in the head. Although it was more of an accident as she had aimed in the middle.

Shot after shot, she laid down fire on the enemy. About half of them missed, and another few weren't lethal on the first hit. But she was still building up a pretty good kill count. Her gun clicked, no shot fell.

"Reload. Next time, count your shots." Jerry, who was still standing next to her, said.

She pulled the little latch that would loosen the magazine and let it drop to the ground, fumbling a little as she inserted the next one.

"Bloody hell. Don't just drop the magazine. We can't use them anymore when they get bent."

Oops, Alice thought sheepishly. It seemed like her common sense was still being influenced by pop culture and video games.

Reloading her gun manually, Alice went right back to shooting at the Raptors that were still rushing at them almost mindlessly. Ignoring any system prompts in the meantime.